Riverdale Rangers
by Booksaboutnothing
Summary: (A Power Rangers/Riverdale) crossover Betty Cooper is the perfect student, all work no play, doing everything to live up to her parents extreme expectations. Then one day she has a meltdown and ends up becoming friends with students she had never associated with before. Then one fateful night somethings happens that changes all their lives.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

* * *

Betty Cooper ran through the hallways to get to class. The blonde haired senior had just finished a student council meeting over lunch where she was the president. She hadn't had a chance to eat and she was trying desperately to eat a jelly sandwich as she went hoping to get to class on time. All of a sudden her foot caught on something and Betty went tumbling to the ground and moments later all the students nearby burst out laughing.

"What's the matter Miss Perfect? Did you take a little trip?" Reggie Mantle, the resident bully asked.

Betty looked to see her notes were smeared in jelly, ruining them. On top of that her clothes were stained too.

"Ah, are your perfect grades going to be ruined?" Reggie taunted her.

Betty picked herself up off the ground slowly.

"You're not so perfect after all," Reggie said. "You're just like the rest of us."

Betty had never wanted to be perfect. She pushed hard to get the best grades and be the best at everything because her parents pushed her to.

"Hey maybe you need one of these," Reggie said as he held up an Adderall pill.

Betty had heard the rumour around the school that the reason she did so well was because she took Adderall. It wasn't true but Betty did not appreciate the insinuation.

"Open wide," Reggie said as he grabbed Betty's mouth and tried to force the pill into her mouth. "You know you want to do this!"

That was when Betty snapped. She lashed out and drove her fist into the side of Reggie's head and he fell to the ground landing on his back completely stunned.

"No! No I won't do it!" Betty shouted.

She mounted Reggie and began hammering her fists down at his face. She caught him flush on the nose breaking it and once in the mouth knocking a couple teeth loose before Reggie was able to cover himself up; however Betty continued to wildly strike at him with her fists.

"No! I'm not doing what anyone wants me to do! I'm not going to do what you want me to do!" Betty screamed.

Finally Moose and Vic were able to pull Betty off of Reggie but she continued to kick and shout as they dragged her off to the office…

* * *

 _Saturday, three weeks later…_

"This is such a disappointment," Alice Cooper said to her daughter.

Betty was sitting in the passenger seat of the car a bored expression on her face as she just stared blankly out the window.

"You were on the track to go to any university you wanted, on a full scholarship" Alice said. "Now you'll be lucky if you can get into a state school. And you have to spend every Saturday with a bunch of delinquents."

After the incident in the school Betty had been suspended for two weeks. She had also been removed as student and kicked off the girls' basketball team. Now she had to serve Saturday detention each weekend as well.

"Your brother got into Stamford, your sister is going to Harvard," Alice said. "And you…"

"I don't care Mom," Betty interrupted.

"What do you mean you don't care?" Alice asked her.

"I mean I don't care about going to so big name university," Betty replied still staring out the window.

"Betty you wanted to go to a big name university," Alice said. "You wanted to be as good as your siblings."

"No, I don't," Betty replied finally looking at her mother. "I never cared about being like Chic and Polly or attending some fancy school; those ideas were forced on me by you."

"Betty don't you start getting smart this me," Alice warned her.

"Everyone thinks that when I attacked Reggie it was because he was trying to force me to take a drug," Betty said ignoring her mother's warning. "But that's not entirely true. The truth is that I was sick of other people deciding what I should do. When I was attacking him, I was thinking of you."

Alice brought the car to a sudden halt while they were still about a block away from the school.

"Get out," Alice said.

Without a word to her moth Betty got out of the car and slammed the door shut behind her walked off towards the school.

Saturday detention was held in the library. When Betty arrived she saw that there were several other students there already including four other seniors.

She immediately recognized Cheryl and Jason Blossom. The red-headed twins were from the wealthiest family in town and the two had a bit of a reputation as party animals and they frequently skipped school. Betty also recognized Chuck Clayton who was the son of the school's gym teacher and football coach. Chuck had been one of the better athletes in the school but he'd recently quit playing for some reason. Betty was wondering what exactly Chuck was doing in Saturday detention anyway.

The only other senior student there was a new girl, Veronica. Betty didn't know much about her other than her name as Veronica kept to herself. Betty assumed Veronica was into the Goth stuff since she dressed in a lot of black and had black hair.

Betty walked over and sat down at the same table as Chuck. Chuck looked to be drawing something and was quite focused on it, so much so that he didn't even look up when Betty sat down.

"What are you drawing?" Betty asked him.

Chuck finally looked up and his eyes went wide when he saw Betty and he covered up his drawing.

"N-nothing," Chuck stammered.

This only served to make Betty even more curious.

"Come on, you can show me," Betty said.

"Okay, just, just don't hit me," Chuck said as he slid the picture across to Betty.

Betty looked at the picture, it looked to be a large muscular woman beating up a male. It was only half-coloured so far.

"Um, what is this?" Betty inquired.

"It uh, you, beating up Reggie," Chuck replied.

Betty took a closer look at the picture and she actually noticed the resemblance to herself. However wasn't entirely sure what to think.

"Um, it's good," Betty said as she slid it back to Chuck.

"You think so?" Chuck asked excitedly.

"Well, I think you made me a bit more muscular than I am," Betty replied. "But you're definitely a talented artist."

"Thanks," Chuck said as he took the picture back and started working on it once more.

Just then Cheryl and Jason came over and the two of them pulled chairs from another table and sat down on either side of Betty.

"Well, well if it isn't the most popular girl in Riverdale High," Cheryl said.

"Oh I don't think I'm very popular," Betty said. "I mean I don't have a lot of friends…"

"We weren't talking popularity as in friends, we mean as in the most talked about student in the school," Jason corrected her.

"Oh…" Betty said quietly.

"So tell us, why'd you snap?" Cheryl inquired curiously.

"What?" Betty asked.

"Reggie is a jerk, we all know that, but something he did made you lose it," Jason said. "What was it?"

Betty glanced at the two of them not sure if she wanted to say or not.

"I… it was when he said that I wanted to take that Aderall pill," Betty said. "I was just… I was so sick of everyone else telling me what to do and telling me what I wanted to do."

"Amen sister," Chuck muttered from across the table.

Betty looked across at him.

"What do you mean?" Betty asked.

"Well that's why I'm here," Chuck said. "I told my dad I was done, I didn't want to play football or basketball anymore. And because he's said that if I wanted to quit I could, but I'd spend every Saturday here. Jokes on him, this is a great place for me to work on my comics."

"You know what, I can respect that," Jason said. "You do you, right?"

"Exactly, why shouldn't I do what I want?" Chuck asked.

"Well speaking of sticking it to parents," Cheryl said with a sly grin. "Perhaps you two would like to come to a little get together Jason and I are holding tonight."

"What kind of get together?" Betty asked.

"Oh you know a bonfire, maybe some skinny dipping," Cheryl replied with a smirk.

"We're holding it at the old quarry," Jason added.

"Isn't the quarry a no trespassing area?" Chuck asked.

"Our family owns the quarry," Cheryl replied. "So if we invite you it's fine."

"Sounds like it would be fun but I'm grounded," Betty said.

"You're going to let that stop you?" Jason asked her.

"Well…" Betty started to say.

"Ask yourself, what do you want to do tonight? Do you want to stay in your room and study like your parents want you to, or are you going to come to our party?" Jason proposed.

When it was put to her like that the choice seemed obvious to Betty. But there was one small problem.

"I have no way to get to the quarry though," Betty said.

"I can help with that," Jason said. "Be outside your house at nine o'clock and I'll give you a lift."

"Okay," Betty agreed.

Cheryl glanced over at the new girl Veronica who was sitting by herself just reading a book.

"Hey if you want to come too feel free," Cheryl offered. "It's B.Y.O.B. though."

Veronica gave just the briefest of glances up from her book to even acknowledge that she had heard Cheryl.

Just then Miss Grundy, the old English teacher who's turn it was to watch Saturday detention this week entered the library.

"Alright everyone be quiet," she said. "Do your homework or whatever and we'll all be out of here in three hours."

* * *

It was almost nine and Betty was in her room. She had told her parents she was going to go study and then go to bed early. As she sat looking out her window out onto the street she could hear her parents arguing downstairs.

"It's your fault that she's like this Hal," Alice was yelling at Betty's father.

"My fault? How is this my fault?" Hal asked.

"If you had just left it to me to dictate what she likes," Alice said. "Instead you had to go and let her see things and try stuff."

"Really? Really Alice? You do know that you sound like a crazy person right?" Hal responded. "You cannot control every aspect of our daughter's life."

"I can and I will," Alice said. "Betty knows that I only want the best for her."

"Do you? Because honestly it seems like what you want is what's best for yourself," Hal retorted.

Betty was distracted by their conversation by a car pulling to a stop across the street, which Betty recognized as an '84 El Camino. The window rolled down and Betty was a little surprised as she immediately recognized Jason's red hair. Betty slid open her window and climbed out onto the covered roof of the porch. She then walked across the roof to where a wooden with ivy was against the side of the house and used it to climb down. She then ran across the street and got into the car.

"Nice car," Betty commented as she hopped in the passenger seat.

"Thanks, You know you just won me ten bucks from Cheryl," Jason commented as she got in. "We had a bet over whether or not you would come."

"Honestly I wasn't entirely sure myself," Betty said.

"Are your parents arguing or something?" Jason asked. "I can hear a commotion from here."

"Yeah," Betty replied.

"About what?" Jason inquired.

"Me," Betty replied. "My mom is a total control freak, she wants to completely run my life. My dad not so much, but my mom tries to control him too."

"Sounds rough, but I have no idea what that's like," Jason said. "My parents barely pay any attention to me and Cheryl."

Betty was about to respond when she heard the side door to her house open.

"Go, go, drive!" Betty shouted.

Jason slammed the car into gear and peeled away.

"Oh man my heart is racing," Betty breathed a sigh of relief as she looked out the back window. "I thought for sure my parents would see me."

Jason just chuckled as he drove along. Soon they arrived at the quarry. The quarry had not been in use for more than a decade and it was filled with water. Jason drove around to the far side where there was a fire going. As Betty got out she saw the only other people there were Cheryl and Chuck.

"Looks like I owe you ten bucks," Cheryl said to her brother as he got out of the car.

Betty watched as Cheryl handed Jason a bill which he slid into his pocket.

"I had faith in you," Jason said to Betty with a grin.

"Hey Betty, pop a squat," Chuck called out pointing at a folding chair next to him.

Betty went over and sat in the chair next to Chuck.

"Care for a drink?" Cheryl asked her as she went over to a small cooler and opened it.

"Um, sure," Betty replied.

"We've got MGD and Coors, pick your poison," Cheryl said.

"Um, whichever," Betty responded.

"Catch," Cheryl said as she threw a can towards Betty.

Betty barely got her hands up in time to catch it as Chuck and Jason both laughed. Betty looked the beer can over in her hands.

"You do know how to open that right?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah, I'm not an idiot," Betty replied as she stared at the can.

Betty had never had a drink before in her life. She popped open the can and looked at it for a moment. Then Betty slowly took a sip. She made a face as the watery and bitter liquid hit her tongue causing Cheryl, Jason and Chuck to all laugh.

"It's so obvious it's your first time," Jason said as he opened a can of his own and took a big gulp.

"Yeah, so?" Betty asked.

"So nothing," Jason replied with a shrug.

Just then there was a noise behind Betty. Everyone looked and were surprised to see the new girl, Veronica.

"Ha, she showed up," Cheryl said.

Reluctantly Jason reached into his pocket and handed the ten dollar bill back to his sister.

"Do you guys bet on everything?" Chuck asked them.

"Only if we disagree with each other," Jason replied.

"Not much of a party," Veronica commented as she walked towards the fire.

"It's pretty exclusive," Cheryl said. "Only the cool kids that get themselves detention are invited."

That drew a chuckle from everyone else.

"Well I brought Tequila," Veronica said holding out a bottle of Jose Cuervo silver tequila.

"Yes! Shots!" Cheryl exclaimed.

Cheryl grabbed the bottle from Veronica and opened it and took a swig straight from the bottle and then handed it back. Veronica then took a chug herself and then passed the bottle to Chuck.

"Kind of wish we had salt and lemons," Chuck said.

Chuck then took a swig from the bottle and then handed it to Betty. Betty took a whiff of the contents, it smelled strong, a little like rubbing alcohol; which sort of made sense. Betty took a deep breath and then took a big gulp. She let out a loud cough the moment she had swallowed as the tequila burned on its way down. Cheryl, Jason, Chuck and Veronica all laughed at Betty once more.

"Easy there," Jason said still chuckling as he took the bottle from Betty. "This stuff is strong."

They continued to pass the bottle around, each taking a drink. It wasn't long until the bottle was empty and all of them were pretty tipsy, especially Betty.

"Man, I thought that was would be lame, but this is pretty awesome," Veronica commented, her words slightly slurred.

"You know what would make it awesomer, er more awesome, er whatever?" Cheryl said. "Naked cliff jumping!"

"Yeah!" Betty agreed.

Betty then began stripping out of her clothes, much to the surprise of the others as she made her way to the edge of the quarry. Jason was the least drunk and he got up and tried to stop her.

"Betty wait," Jason called out.

Betty was already down to just her bra and panties when Jason grabbed her arm. Betty just grinned at Jason and then she pulled him right to the edge and leapt down towards the water bring Jason with her.

"Oh my god, Jason!" Cheryl cried out as she stumbled to the edge.

She got there just in time to see Jason and Betty hit the water. Veronica and Chuck were soon beside Cheryl looking down.

"That's a long way down," Chuck commented.

"Yeah," Veronica agreed.

Just then Betty and Jason surfaced, Betty laughing and Jason spitting out water.

"Come on down guys!" Betty called up.

Without hesitation Chuck leapt off plunging down to water landing just a few feet from Betty and Jason. Cheryl then looked over at Veronica.

"You game new girl?" Cheryl asked.

Veronica just smirked and did a graceful swan dive off of the cliff.

"Show off," Cheryl muttered before she too jumped down.

Soon the four of them found themselves treading water.

"Um, how do we get out of the water?" Betty asked.

"We've got to swim over there," Jason pointed towards the far end of the quarry.

"That's too far; I'm going to climb back up," Betty said.

She swam back over to the cliff and began trying to climb.

"Betty, Betty don't!" Jason called.

"You should not have let her drink so much," Chuck said.

Betty got about six or seven feet up the side of the cliff when suddenly the rock gave way and simply collapsed and Betty plunged down into the water again.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked as he swam over.

"I'm alright, I'm alright," Betty replied. "That wall is slippery."

"Hey look," Chuck said pointing at the rock wall.

In the newly exposed rock face just a couple feet above the water were five small glowing stones, one red, one blue, one yellow, one pink and one a purplish-black.

"Cool!" Betty exclaimed as she swam over.

Up close she saw the stones were fairly flat and about twice the size of a quarter. Betty grabbed the red one and pulled and the stone came free easily. Betty was surprised that it felt warm to the touch.

"What is it?" Cheryl asked as she swam over to look.

"No idea," Betty replied.

Cheryl then swam over and grabbed the pink one, as pink was her favourite colour.

"They're warm," Cheryl commented.

"Really? Let me see," Jason said.

Cheryl handed him the stone and Jason felt that it was indeed warm. He handed it back to her and then he went over and pulled the purplish-black one off the wall.

"This one's warm too," Jason said.

Not wanting to be left out Chuck and Veronica swam over and pulled out the blue and yellow ones respectively.

"Do you think they're radioactive?" Chuck asked.

"Oh no, my hair!" Cheryl panicked. "I don't want my hair to fall out!"

"I don't think they're radioactive," Veronica said. "Radiation makes you taste metal in your mouth, even though it's not there."

"How do you know that?" Jason asked.

"I read," Veronica replied.

"Maybe we should get out of the water and go back up to the fire and take a better look at these," Chuck suggested.

The all got out of the water and went back up to the fire. Jason and Chuck threw some more wood on to get it burning hotter so they could all dry off and Betty began putting her clothes back on.

"Does anybody else think it's odd that we found five of these things?" Veronica asked as she looked at her yellow stone.

"Yeah, these things don't seem natural," Chuck agreed as he held is towards the fire letting the blue light that passed through strike his face. "It's almost like they were left there."

"Come on these things were buried in there for millions of years," Betty said as she made her way towards the fire now that she was dressed again. "I mean it would have had to have been…"

Betty stopped and threw up as the others all laughed.

"Betty's right though," Jason said. "I mean these things would have had to have been put there during the time of dinosaurs."

"Yeah who would have done that, aliens?" Cheryl asked.

All of them laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

Just then they saw another vehicle enter the quarry.

"Who's that?" Chuck asked looking at Jason and Cheryl. "Did you guys invite somebody else?"

"No, we didn't invite anyone else," Cheryl replied.

As the vehicle approached Betty saw that it was a Cadillac Escalade, black with a large silver serpent decal on the side.

"Shit, it's the Southside Serpents," Jason said. "We have to get out of here!"

They all ran to Jason's El Camino. Cheryl climbed into the passenger seat while the rest of them climbed into the back. Jason started it up and peeled away as fast as he could. However the SUV chased after them.

"Why are they chasing us?" Betty demanded frightenedly.

"The Serpents come out here to dispose of bodies and do drug deals," Cheryl replied.

"I thought your family owned the quarry," Chuck shouted.

"They do, but it's not used for anything," Jason responded.

Just then a second vehicle appeared in the quarry, this one a black Camaro. It came around the other side heading right for them.

"Jason look out!" Cheryl shouted.

Jason swerved to try and get around the car but it hit the rear end and the El Camino flipped over and rolled. Betty, Chuck and Veronica were thrown from the back and they hit the ground and rolled down into the pit the El Camino coming after plunging down into the water with an unconscious Cheryl and Jason trapped inside.

* * *

 _What, did I just kill the main characters off in the first chapter? No, of course not why would I call this chapter 1 then? But how did they survive? Well find out in the next chapter. Please review!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

* * *

 *** Bang! Bang! Bang! ***

"Elizabeth Cooper, you wake up right now!" Alice shouted at her daughter through the door.

Betty sat up in bed immediately startled and looked around. The last thing she remembered she had been in Jason's El Camino trying to get away from some Southside Serpents only to get thrown out and into the pit of the quarry. She had no idea how she had gotten home.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Betty responded. "My alarm clock just didn't go off."

"Well hurry up, you need to be at school in forty minutes," Alice said.

Betty was surprised, the incident at the quarry had happened on Saturday night and now it was Monday morning. Betty had no idea what had happened on Sunday.

Betty made way out of her room and to the bathroom still feeling a little groggy. She shut the door and locked it behind her. She reached into the shower/bathtub and turned it on and then went to pull the shower curtain closed. However as she did she end up ripping the curtain off leaving herself standing there holding it and a dumbfounded look on her face.

"What the…?" Betty said in surprise.

She did her best to put the curtain over the rod carefully so it would still sort of work. She then pulled off the XXXL T-shirt that she slept it going over to look at herself in the mirror. Betty's eyes went with shock at what she saw.

Not only did Betty not have a scratch or mark on her body at all, but Betty noticed she looked much different. Betty had been fairly fit from playing basketball where she had been a star player; but a big reason for that was because Betty was 5'11" which was much taller than most girls. Now however Betty noticed that her arms were looking a lot more toned and her flat stomach was now ripped with six-pack abs.

However the biggest change was her breasts. Betty had always been on the smaller side somewhere in between an A-Cup and a B-Cup. However now Betty seemed to have at least D-cup breasts somehow. Betty reached up and grabbed her own breasts and groped herself not sure if they were real or not.

"How is this possible?" Betty asked her reflection, which of course didn't reply.

Betty then got into the shower and began shampooing her hair.

"Maybe I'm just seeing things," Betty said to herself as she rinsed her hair.

Betty finished showering and turned the shower off. She then reached out to grabbed her towel and as she did she ended up pulling the towel bar right off the wall.

"What…" Betty wondered in disbelief as she stared at the towel rod in her hand.

She hadn't even been pulling that hard she thought but as she looked at the wall she could tell that it hadn't been loose since she'd pulled a couple pieces of tile free as well. Betty tried to put the towel bar back but it wasn't sticking. She then just set it down on the floor and wrapped herself up in her towel and hurried back to her room, closing the door behind her.

"What the hell is going on with me?" Betty asked as she looked at herself in the mirror on her dresser.

Betty then looked down and saw something sitting on her dresser. It was the red stone from the quarry. If she had the stone then that meant that she had been at the quarry and everything she remembered had happened. That just left her with more questions than ever.

"Betty! Hurry up!" Alice shouted from downstairs.

"I'm coming!" Betty replied.

Betty went to get dressed however none of her bras fit her anymore. Betty considered perhaps borrowing one of her mothers, but that wouldn't necessarily have been a proper fit either and decided not to bother and just threw on a t-shirt and a black vest and some jeans. She then went to tie her hair back into a ponytail like she always did, but then stopped. Instead Betty decided to put her hair into two side ponytails. Betty then slid the red stone into her pocket.

Betty then made her way down to the kitchen where her mother was. Alice's back was to Betty as Betty entered the kitchen.

"I don't know what's wrong with you Betty. You were in bed all day yesterday and somehow you get up late today and you… What is with this?" Alice asked as she turned around and saw Betty.

"What's with what?" Betty asked.

"The hair, the outfit and… are you stuffing your bra?" Alice demanded.

"No," Betty replied defensively covered herself with her hand. "Geez there's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing Mom, and I wanted to try something different with my hair. It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal, this is how people end up becoming serial killers Betty," Alice said.

"Don't be ridiculous Alice," Betty's father Hal said as he entered the kitchen. "I like what you've done with your hair Betty."

"Don't encourage her Hal," Alice snapped at her husband.

Hal went to say something and stopped. He then reached into his wallet and pulled out a twenty and handed it to Betty.

"Go get yourself some breakfast somewhere," Hal said.

"Oh so you're just going to buy her love now?" Alice shouted at Hal.

Betty quickly left the kitchen and the house. She could still hear her parents shouting as she made her way down the driveway. Betty made her way to school, stopping at McDonald's along the way to grab a breakfast sandwich. When she got to school Betty was still quite early, however she knew that Chuck's father always came in early to coach morning practice and brought Chuck with him.

Betty found Chuck in the library sitting at one of the tables working on his cartoons.

"Chuck," Betty called out.

Chuck looked up a little surprised to see Betty.

"Betty, what are you okay?" he asked. "You look… different."

"Yeah, I'm fine; I feel great actually," Betty replied. "And something is different."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the red stone and set it down on the table. Chuck pulled out the blue one he had and put it down.

"We should have died on Saturday but somehow we're still alive and I think these are responsible," Chuck said.

Betty nodded in agreement.

"This morning I yanked a towel bar in my bathroom right off the wall like it was nothing," she said.

"I had something similar happen, I crushed my cellphone with just my hand by mistake," Chuck exclaimed.

"We should head out to the quarry after school see if we can figure this out," Betty suggested.

"I don't think I can wait till after school," Chuck said. "I think we should go out there now."

"Now?" Betty asked in surprise.

"Do you think you'll be able to focus on anything with all these nagging questions about what happened to us in the back of your head?" Chuck responded.

"Yeah you're right," Betty admitted. "But how are we going to get out there?"

"We can use my dad's car," Chuck said. "He's going to be busy with practice for a while still."

Betty was a little apprehensive but her curiosity over what had happened to her was becoming overwhelming. After considering for a moment she nodded in agreement.

"Okay, meet me in the staff parking lot in five minutes," Chuck said. "I've just got to get the keys."

Betty nodded again and the two of them left the library and then split up and went separate ways. Betty made her way towards the staff parking lot, along the way she ran into Dilton Doiley. Betty and Dilton had been in competition to be the class valedictorian; however after her meltdown it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that it would go to Dilton.

"Betty," Dilton greeted her coolly.

Betty just stopped, but said nothing.

"I've been meaning to thank you," Dilton said.

"For what?" Betty asked.

"For losing it," Dilton replied. "You made my path to valedictorian so much easier."

Betty just rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Although I've been meaning to ask, why did you snap? But now looking at you I can see it was over a boy," Dilton said with a smug look on his face.

"Over what?" Betty asked confused by his statement.

"Well look at you," Dilton replied pointing at her. "Normally you do not dress to impress, now you're stuffing your shirt to be like one of the cheerleaders."

"There's no stuffing here," Betty said poking herself in the breast. "And this is not about a guy, and I don't want to be a cheerleader. As far as what's going on with me, it's none of your damn business. So just take your valedictorian win and go away. I never wanted it anyway; it was all my mother pushing me to it."

Dilton's smug expression vanished. He had his victory, but Betty had just made it into a hollow win. Without another word Dilton walked away. Betty then continued on out to the staff parking lot. A couple minutes later Chuck arrived with his father's keys.

"Okay come on let's go," Chuck said.

He walked over to his father's truck, a blue 2010 Ford Ranger. Chuck and Betty both got in and Chuck started the truck up.

"So, I kind of want to apologize for that cartoon I was drawing the other day," Chuck said as they drove along.

"Don't worry about it," Betty said with a smile. "It kind of actually turned out to be true."

"What do you mean?" Chuck asked.

"You didn't notice?" Betty responded pointing at herself.

"Notice what?" Chuck asked. "What you're wearing a push-up bra?"

"No, I'm not wearing any bra," Betty replied, and then flexed her arm. "And I didn't have this before."

Chuck looked at Betty's bicep, which looked like it came from a fitness model.

"Whoa," Chuck said in surprise.

"Nothing like that happened for you?" Betty asked.

"Not that I noticed," Chuck replied. "But I've always been in good shape because of my dad."

There was a bit of an awkward silence between the two of them as they drove on.

"You know, I'm kind of glad that had that meltdown and beat up Reggie," Betty said. "I'm not glad about hurting Reggie, he's a jerk yeah but he didn't deserve that. But the fact that it freed me, now I don't have to be the person my mother wanted; to do whatever she told me to do. I can actually make my own decisions for once. Figure out what it is I want to do."

"Well no offense but you seem to be making some pretty shit decisions," Chuck commented. "I mean right now you're skipping school with me to go to the quarry where just two days ago we should have been killed."

"Mistakes are only bad if you don't learn from them," Betty stated.

"And if they don't kill you," Chuck added with a chuckle. "Oh good we're here."

They pulled into the quarry and Chuck brought the truck to a stop and they both got out. Across the pit they could see two figures on the far side of the quarry, one male and one female. From their red hair Betty and Chuck were pretty sure that it was Cheryl and Jason. Betty and Chuck made their way around the quarry to where Cheryl and Jason were; the two of them were just staring down into the water below.

"I take it you guys remembered what happened too," Jason said as Betty and Chuck approached.

"Right up until we fell into the water," Betty replied. "After that…"

"It's all a blank," Cheryl finished for her.

"When I woke up I looked outside thinking I'd see my car that it was all a dream," Jason said. "But it was gone and I'm guessing it's down there."

"Well there's really only one way to find out," Chuck said.

Just then there was rustling in the forest behind them. They all turned around and were surprised to see Veronica emerge from the forest.

"You guys are all alive!" Veronica exclaimed.

"Does anyone else think that these are responsible?" Betty asked as she pulled her red stone out of her pocket.

The others all reached into pockets and got their own stones out.

"I think you're right," Cheryl agreed looking at her own pink stone. "There's something… weird about these things."

"How did you get here?" Jason asked Veronica.

"I ran," Veronica replied. "I don't know why but I have never felt better in my life. I think I ran like eight miles to get here at almost a dead sprint and I'm barely out of breath."

"It's weird right? I broke my cell phone and Betty smashed up her bathroom this morning," Chuck said.

Betty then turned around and ran to the edge of the pit and leapt off. She jumped nearly ten feet into the air before she did a graceful dive down into the water. The other ran to the edge of the pit in time to see Betty slip beneath the water.

"Okay, has she been drinking again?" Cheryl asked.

"I don't think so," Chuck replied.

Just then Betty resurfaced.

"Guys, you've got to come down here," she called up. "Jason's car is down here, but… well there's something else you need to come see."

The others looked at each other and then Chuck jumped down to join Betty and Jason soon followed him.

"How come we're all following her?" Veronica asked Cheryl.

"Why you have something else you'd rather be doing?" Cheryl responded.

"Actually yes," Veronica replied.

"Well, then I'm sorry," Cheryl said.

Before Veronica could react Cheryl grabbed her and jumped down into the pit with her. The two of them surfaced with Veronica spitting out water angrily.

"Don't do that again," Veronica sputtered.

"So what exactly do we need to see?" Jason asked.

Betty held up her stone which was glowing faintly. The others all took out there which were also glowing.

"Follow me," Betty said.

Betty dove beneath the water, holding the stone out in front of her like a dim flashlight. About ten feet below the surface were the destroyed remains of Jason's El Camino. The doors were both torn off and lying separate from the car.

However the destroyed car wasn't the most fascinating thing underwater. Rather than lying against the expected rock bed that one would expect to find at the bottom of a quarry, the El Camino looking like it was just floating on top of a larger round pit that was pitch black.

As the five teens all swam towards the wreck their stones began to glow brighter. Betty was the first to reach the car, but she was more interested in the strange pit that it seemed to be sitting on. Cautiously she reached her hand out and was surprised when her hand went in and it felt like she was breaking the surface of the water. Curious Betty pushed further in and suddenly found herself falling until she landed with a thud.

Picking herself up Betty looked around to see that she was in some sort of underground cavern. Suddenly she heard a startled cry above her and Betty looked up just in time to see Chuck falling towards her. Betty barely got out of the way but then a moment later Jason landed on top of her and then Veronica and Cheryl both landed nearby.

"I'm so sorry," Jason apologized as he got up.

"It's alright, it actually didn't really hurt that much," Betty commented.

Betty picked herself up, wiped a bit of dirt off when she noticed Jason staring at her.

"What?" Betty asked.

"You didn't have those yesterday," Jason said pointing at her chest.

Betty looked down to see that her wet T-shirt was clinging to her skin and since she wasn't wearing a bra her nipples were quite visible through the damp fabric. Embarrassed Betty quickly covered herself with her arm.

"Don't stare!" Betty exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah she's got boobs, all girls do Jason," Cheryl said dismissively, clearly focused on something else. "You've seen mine plenty of times, get over it."

Cheryl held out her stone which was glowing quite bright at this point and began making her way deeper into the cavern. The others followed behind her their own stones also glowing brighter. They went about fifty feet or so into the cavern before they came to a shop.

In front of them was a set of stairs and what looked like a round door with six swirling edges on it. It looked as though it was some sort of alien space craft that had been buried underground.

"What the hell is this?" Veronica asked.

"I don't know but I think somehow these stones are connected to this," Chuck said.

Betty slowly made her way towards the spaceship or whatever it was. As she reached the bottom of the stairs the door pulled open the six segments all pulling into the frame.

"I don't know if we should go in there," Cheryl said. "It seems dangerous."

"These stones saved our lives; otherwise we would already be dead right now. If whatever is in there wanted us dead then we would already be dead," Betty replied.

"She right," Jason agreed as she stepped up beside Betty.

Slowly the five of them headed up the stairs and into the ship.

* * *

 _Our main characters survived somehow, but how remains a mystery. Will they find the answer in this alien vessel that seems to have been buried for millions of years? Find out in Chapter 3! Please Review!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

Betty, Chuck, Jason, Cheryl and Veronica slowly entered the spaceship. As soon as they were all inside the door closed behind them startling them.

"How is this place still running?" Chuck wondered.

"No idea," Betty replied. "But it's clearly some kind of alien technology."

"This place gives me the creeps," Cheryl commented.

"Not me," Jason said.

Jason began heading further into the ship and the others followed behind. Soon they came to a large dome shaped room. There were three other corridors leading off from the room, but it was impossible to see where they led.

"What is this place?" Veronica asked.

All of a sudden the ceiling of the room began shifting around, sort of like gears in a transmission. The five teens looked all around confused and a little frightened. Just then the doorway they had entered though slammed closed. Then a dim orange light appeared down the corridor to the left.

"Oh god run!" Cheryl shouted.

She started running towards the corridor to the right and the others soon followed after her, but they quickly found themselves at a dead end. They turned around to see something approaching, it looked as if it had two glowing orange eyes. However as it got closer they saw it was a shot little robot, only about four feet tall. With a wide flat head with two glowing orange lights on each side, and a red and black humanoid body.

"Rangers, Rangers, you have come!" the robot exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm sorry, Rangers?" Betty asked confused.

"Yes, yes, you are the Power Rangers," the robot replied. "Come, come, you must meet Zordon."

The teens were all very confused by all of this.

"Sorry, who's Zordon?" Jason asked.

"And what's a Power Ranger?" Chuck inquired.

"Come, come, follow me and all your questions will be answered," the robot replied.

The robot walked back towards the domed room as Betty, Chuck, Jason, Cheryl and Veronica all looked at each other trying to see if any of them had some sort of understanding of what was going on. Veronica simply shrugged and then followed after the robot and the others then followed after her.

The robot led the way down the final corridor coming to a room that had five pads around some strange alien machine in the middle. The far wall was a semi-circle and it sort of resembled a pin impression board.

"Zordon! Zordon!" the robot called out.

A loud deep voice suddenly rumbled speaking in a language that none of the teens understood. The robot replied and the voice and the robot seemed to be carrying on a conversation in the language. Suddenly the far wall began to move and an impression that vaguely resembled a face appeared.

"These are the ones that found the Power Coins?" the face asked.

"Yes Zordon, these are the new Power Rangers," the robot replied.

The face slid around the wall moving from one side to the other seemingly examining the teens.

"They look so young Alpha," Zordon commented.

"Well they're teenagers," the robot, who was apparently called Alpha, explained. "Older than children but not quite adults yet, it's the adolescent stage of the main life form on this planet."

Chuck, Cheryl, Jason and Veronica were all dumbfounded by everything that was going on. However Betty had questions.

"Excuse me, but could you please explain just what's going on?" Betty asked. "What exactly is a Power Ranger, what is this place?"

Zordon moved to be closer to Betty.

"You five have found the power coins, correct?" Zordon asked.

"You mean these things?" Jason asked holding up his stone.

The others all pulled out their own stones.

"What exactly are these?" Cheryl asked. "Are they responsible for saving our lives the other night?"

"Yes, the power coins are crystals of power. They improve all aspects of your physical body," Zordon replied.

"That explains these," Betty muttered to the others pointing at her breasts.

"Okay so these power coins as you call them make us Power Rangers, but what is that?" Chuck asked.

"The Power Rangers are the defenders of life," Zordon replied. "All planets with life in the galaxy have what is known as a Zeo Crystal buried beneath the surface. The Zeo Crystal is what sustains all life on your planet. As Rangers it is your duty to protect the Zeo Crystal."

"Well I've never heard of this Zeo Crystal before and I don't think anyone else has, and if it's buried underground what exactly do we need to protect it from?" Veronica asked.

"Tens of millions of years ago I came to this planet it my own Ranger team," Zordon replied. "We were here to stop Rita, who had previously been the sixth member of our team. Rita wanted to claim Earth's Zeo Crystal for herself. It would have given her complete power over life and death. Taking the crystal would have rendered all life on Earth extinct. Rita killed the rest of my team but I was able to stop Rita by having Alpha crash a meteor into the planet, but I lost my own life in the process. My conscience now lives on here on the ship thanks to my connection to the Morphing Grid."

The teens just looked at Zordon completely confused. None of this was making any sense. On top of that Zordon hadn't answered Veronica's question.

"Rita wasn't killed by the meteor like I was," Zordon explained. "Thanks to her own power coin she was able to survive although she was put into a sort of hibernation. However I can sense through this vessel's sensors that she has managed to begun to awaken."

"Wait, what?" Betty exclaimed.

"Rita has awakened and it won't be long until she regains her power," Alpha stated. "Once she does she'll begin creating Goldar to extract the Zeo Crystal for her."

"What the hell is Goldar?" Jason asked.

"Goldar is what you human would call a golem," Zordon replied. "He is a massive construct that Rita is able to create out of gold."

"Okay that doesn't sound good," Cheryl commented.

"Fortunately it will take Rita some time to gather the gold needed to reform Goldar," Alpha said.

"How long?" Chuck asked.

"Thirteen days," Alpha replied.

"Alright, I'm out," Veronica said as she turned and left.

"Me too," Cheryl said. "Come on Jason."

Cheryl and Jason turned and followed Veronica. Chuck looked between the three of them and at Zordon and Alpha; he then shrugged at Betty and followed as well. Betty then went to leave as well.

"Betty Cooper wait," Zordon called out.

Betty stopped and turned around slowly.

"How do you know my name?" Betty asked.

"You hold the red Power Coin," Zordon replied. "At one time that was also my own Power Coin, through it and the Morphing Grid you and I are linked. You know that what I have told you is true."

Betty said nothing but just stared at the disembodied head that was protruding from the wall that was Zordon.

"The only way that Rita will be stopped is if the five of you work together," Zordon said.

"You're telling me all of this, and I want believe you. The problem is that it's all so farfetched, even if I believe you need proof to convince the others," Betty said. "For starters what exactly is the Morphing Grid?"

"It is difficult to explain what the Morphing Grid is in your language," Zordon replied. "But it is a connection of all the Zeo Crystals in the galaxy. In a sense it is life itself."

"Okay so the other night the five of us got into an accident that should have killed us and our connection to this Morphing Grid through these Power Coins is what allowed us to survive?" Betty inquired.

"Yes," Zordon answered.

"So how come I don't remember almost 36 hours of what happened after?" Betty asked.

"Your accident would have rendered you unconscious," Alpha explained. "The Power Coins would have put you into a semi-conscious state sort of like sleep-walking to get you home. You then would have remained asleep for quite some time while your bodies adapted to the power of the Morphing Grid."

"And by adapted you mean like actual physical changes?" Betty asked.

"Yes, the Coin would use your own thoughts and the power of the Morphing Grid to help improve you," Alpha answered.

Betty looked down at her chest. She'd always been so self-conscious of having small breasts before and now she didn't.

"Hmm, okay," she said. "Alright, let me see if I can talk the others into coming back."

Betty hurried off to find the others. She found them back at the entrance to the cavern sitting around as if they were waiting for her.

"Didn't think you were coming," Veronica said when she saw Betty.

"Look I know all of that was a lot to take in, and it seems crazy," Betty said. "But I'm pretty that Zordon and Alpha are telling us the truth."

"What makes you so sure?" Cheryl asked sceptically.

"Call it a gut feeling," Betty answered. "But Zordon and Alpha explained, how we survived to me. And I still don't understand it; but we survived something that killed us thanks to these Power Coins which are connected to some crystal that creates life. Not only that, we're all faster and stronger than any normal person."

"If you believe it, I believe it," Jason said.

"Jason, what…?" Cheryl started to ask.

"Betty's one of the smartest people I know," Jason said. "And if she thinks that we're these Power Rangers or whatever then so do I."

"Okay but I didn't ask for this," Chuck said. "I mean I don't want to be a hero. And doesn't this bother you Betty? I mean didn't you melt down over other people making decisions for you?"

"This is different Chuck," Betty replied. "This isn't somebody else making a decision for me. I mean I was the one that found the Power Coins in the first place; and mine wasn't given to me by Alpha or Zordon. And the rest of you all chose to take one too. Yeah maybe if we had known what they were we would have made a different decision. But we all made a choice then and I think we've got to live with the consequences."

"She's right," Veronica agreed much to Betty's surprise.

"I am?" Betty asked in shock.

"Yeah, we've got to learn to live with our decisions," Veronica said.

Betty looked at Chuck and Cheryl who were the two holdouts.

"Okay, I'm in," Chuck agreed.

"Fine," Cheryl said with a sigh. "I guess I have to look after my little brother."

"Little brother? You're like twelve minutes older than me," Jason retorted.

"Come on guys let's go back and talk to Zordon," Betty said.

The five of them made their way back into the ship to where they had left Zordon and Alpha.

"Rangers, I am glad you have returned," Zordon said. "Now there are three rules to being a ranger that you must follow. Rule number one: never use your power for personal gain. Rule number two: do not escalate a fight unless your enemy forces you two. And finally rule number three: Always keep your identity a secret, no one else may know that you are a Power Ranger."

"Makes some sense I guess," Veronica commented. "That last one will be kind of trick."

"However to truly become Rangers you will first have to morph." Zordon stated.

"Morph?" Chuck asked.

"Will each of you step onto one of the five pads," Zordon said ignoring Chuck's question.

Each of them stepped onto one of the pads looking around at each other.

"Now focus on your coins and their connection to the Morphing Grid," Zordon said. "This will allow you to generate your armour to protect you in combat."

The five of them looked around not entirely sure what Zordon meant, however they tried to do as he asked as best as they could. However nothing was happening.

"Uh, I don't think it's working Zordon," Alpha said.

"They are not ready," Zordon declared. "Take them to training simulator, Alpha."

The new Rangers followed Alpha from Zordon's chamber to another section of the ship. It was a large white cube-shaped room with a dark blue grid pattern on the walls, floor and ceiling.

"This kind of looks like the holo deck on Star Trek," Chuck commented.

"Yes it's actually quite similar to that," Alpha agreed.

"You've watched Star Trek?" Betty asked in surprise.

"I've watched all your television programs since your species first began broadcasting," Alpha replied. "It has been a pleasant reprieve from the previous sixty five million years of nothing."

Suddenly the room changed into what seemed to be a rocky outcropping in the wilderness with a grey cloudy sky overhead. Then out of nowhere appeared a large humanoid thing that appeared to be composed of rock and dirt that was about eight feet tall.

"This is a Putty," Alpha said. "They are semi-sentient constructs that Rita is able to create from rock or dirt. They are the base of her army."

"How many of these things can she create?" Cheryl asked.

"A lot," Alpha replied. "It depends on Rita's power level. Even in small groups they should be no match at all for a ranger."

"Then with our new powers this should be a cake walk," Jason said.

Without waiting for Alpha's command Jason ran at the Putty to attack it only to get clotheslined down by the creature. Cheryl ran forward and helped her brother back up to his feet and back to where the others were.

"Putty's are not defenseless, and without morphing it will be hard to defeat them," Alpha said. "The key is to strike hard at their center mass."

Betty stepped forward and raised her fists. Slowly she approached the Putty and when it swung an arm at her Betty ducked before she stepped forward and drove her right fist as hard as she could into the Putty's chest. The Putty crumbled into rubble which then flickered and vanished.

"Very good," Alpha congratulated her. "Of course it's very unlikely you'll face off with a single Putty one on one like this, but it's a good start."

For the next several hours they trained each taking turns fight a Putty hologram before they moved on to all of them fighting five Putties together at once. It was tough and they all ended up with bumps and bruises, but they also found themselves becoming capable fighters.

Alpha then took them back to Zordon's chamber where they tried to morph for a second time. However once again nothing happened.

"You are not trying hard enough," Zordon said.

"We're trying as hard as we can," Veronica retorted. "But you're expecting us to do something we know nothing about."

"You know enough," Zordon snapped. "You just are not a team. Now go."

The Rangers left the chamber leaving Zordon and Alpha to converse in their strange alien language. They then made their way back to the underwater cavern and jumped up into the water, which was bizarre, and then swam up to the surface. The entire time nobody said anything.

"Do you guys want to come over to our place?" Jason asked as they got made their way out of the pit finally breaking the silence.

"Why?" Chuck asked.

"Well I was thinking about what Zordon said, about us not being a team," Jason said. "I mean maybe we need to bond a little."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Betty agreed.

"Will there be food?" Chuck asked.

"Sure, we can order a pizza or something," Cheryl replied.

"Then I'm in," Chuck agreed.

Everyone then looked at Veronica.

"So, you in new girl?" Jason asked.

Veronica looked around at each of them, her face expressionless, "Sure why not," she said.

* * *

The Rangers were sitting around the poolside table in the Blossom's backyard eating pepperoni pizza.

"So this is fun and all," Chuck said. "But how does this make us a better team?"

"Well, maybe we should share something about ourselves with each other," Betty suggested. "Something that nobody else knows."

"That's a good idea," Cheryl said. "And since it was your idea why don't you go first?"

Betty looked around feeling a little awkward but then nodded.

"Okay," Betty said pausing to think. "Well I don't want to be lawyer, or a basketball player, or a physicist. For the longest time what I've wanted to be is a mechanic."

"Really, a mechanic?" Jason asked.

"I've loved cars since I was a little girl," Betty replied. "My dad used to have this old '57 Chevy Bel-Air that we would work on; until my mom made him sell it."

"That's interesting but, I think you need to say something a little more personal," Cheryl said. "How about you tell us what's with your boobs? Don't think I didn't notice that they got bigger, almost as big as mine."

Betty blushed.

"Come on, you've got to tell us," Jason prompted her.

"Alright…" Betty agreed. "I mean… it's kind of embarrassing. But I've always kind of been jealous of girls with bigger breasts. Part of the reason why I went along and did everything my mother told me to do was because I always felt like no boys were interested in me. That when they looked at me they thought, there's plain boring Betty."

"Well I never thought you were boring," Jason said.

That elicited laughs from everyone including Betty.

"Okay Chuck, you're next," Cheryl said.

"Hmm, okay," Chuck agreed as he thought about what to tell them. "Well I guess you all know I draw cartoons, but I also write fan fiction."

"What kind of fan fiction?" Betty inquired.

"I dabble in various sci-fi series and a few other things," Chuck replied.

"I think Betty meant what genre of stories," Veronica corrected.

"Oh, well sometimes actions and um, the occasional erotic fetish story," Chuck responded with an embarrassed smile.

"Oh now I'm interested," Cheryl said. "Got one for me to read? Do you do artwork for them?"

"I'll show you later," Chuck promised. "How about you Veronica?"

Everyone looked over at Veronica. Veronica looked down at the ground as she swirled around the can of Coke she had in her hand. There was a long awkward silence.

"You all know me as Veronica Smith," Veronica said.

"Actually, I had no idea what your last name was," Jason commented.

"Well it isn't Smith," Veronica said. "My real name is Veronica Lodge, and yes I am that Veronica Lodge."

The other four teens all stared at Veronica in stunned silence. About a year and a half ago New York billionaire Hiram Lodge had been killed, some said assassinated. It had turned out that the real estate mogul had been doing business with mob and had reneged on a deal he had with them. His wife and daughter had witnessed his killing and they had been put into witness protection not long afterwards.

"Get the fuck out!" Cheryl exclaimed finally breaking the silence.

"My mom and I have been in witness protection for more than a year now," Veronica replied. "We've had to move four times already because the marshals were worried that the mob had learned where we were."

"I'm so sorry," Betty said. "That's got to be so hard. I mean your dad's dead, you had this life where you had everything and now you're living here in Riverdale."

"I loved my dad, but he was an idiot for getting involved with the mob," Veronica said. "It was totally motivated by greed; in a way I think he got what he deserved. As far as being in Riverdale… it's not so bad. I mean okay we live in a trailer and my mom is working part time as a waitress which is a big step down. But this place is a lot better than when they had us living in Mississippi; be glad you don't live there Chuck."

"Believe me I am," Chuck agreed. "So which twin is going to spill their secret first?"

Chuck, Betty and Veronica looked back and forth from Cheryl to Jason. Jason then took a deep breath.

"Cheryl and I lost our virginity to each other," Jason said.

Jaws dropped open at the shocking revelation.

"We were 14," Cheryl tried to explain. "Our parents… they're never around, we pretty much have to take care of ourselves. There's the housekeepers who do some cooking and cleaning. But when it came to… sex, well we had nobody to ask about it."

"So of course what do we do we try and figure things out by doing a Google search," Jason continued the story. "Of course a Google search for sex… well I think we all know that wasn't a great idea. We watched some videos but we still had a lot questions."

"We figured the only way to answer those questions was to actually try it ourselves," Cheryl said. "Of course we didn't know that having sex with each other was wrong. That had never been explained to us, and we hadn't found incest in our web searches."

"And wouldn't you know it that is the one time that our parents actually decided to look in on us and see what we were doing," Jason said chuckling as he thought back. "I still remember the look on their faces."

"You'd think that after something like that they might have become more involved parents," Cheryl continued. "No, no about two days later it was back to the status quo; barely acknowledging our existence."

There was a long quiet.

"So we're all in agreement, we don't share any of this with anyone else?" Betty asked.

They all nodded in agreement.

Just then there was the sound of police sirens from the front of the house. They all got up wondering what was going on and went to the front. They saw two police officers searching Chuck's father's truck.

"Hey what are you guys doing?" Chuck demanded.

One of the officer pointed his weapon at Chuck. Chuck frightenedly put his hands up.

"Get down on the ground," the officer ordered him.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Betty said getting in between the officer and Chuck. "That's his father's truck."

"Well this vehicle has been reported stolen," the officer said.

"Look this is all just a misunderstanding," Chuck said.

"Well we can clear this up down at the police station," the officer said as he pulled out his handcuffs.

"You arrest him you have to arrest me too," Betty said.

"Have it your way," the officer said as he slapped the cuffs onto Betty.

The other officer came over and put hand cuffs on Chuck as the Cheryl, Jason and Veronica watched not sure what to do.

"Were you three involved in this?" the officer asked them.

"Um no sir," Jason replied. "I mean they're our friends we thought that Chuck had just borrowed his dad's truck."

The officer narrowed his eyes at Jason before he and his partner led Betty and Chuck to their squad car and put them in the back seat.

"Man I am in so much trouble," Chuck moaned.

"I don't know I think I might have you beat," Betty responded.

As the cop car pulled away from the Blossom house Betty and Chuck looked out the back window to see Cheryl, Jason and Veronica standing at the end of the driveway still looking stunned. They then turned back around and sat quietly wondering just what they were going to do themselves.

* * *

 _Betty and Chuck have been arrested? The Rangers can't morph? And those were some very revealing secrets! Find out what comes from all of this in Chapter 4! Please Review!_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

* * *

Betty and Chuck were led from the squad car into Riverdale's police station and taken to the booking area. However because they were still minors the police couldn't put them into a holding cell with adult criminals so they were handcuffed to a bench while they waited to be processed.

"My dad is going to be so pissed," Chuck muttered worriedly.

"At you or at the cops?" Betty asked.

"Both," Chuck replied after thinking for a moment.

Just then a detective entered the station with a dishevelled looking man in cuffs. The man smelled of fish which made Betty and Chuck think that he may have worked at the fisherman's wharf or at least that was where he had been.

"Hey detective," the booking officer greeted him. "Got a suspect in your case?"

"Not a suspect, I think he might be a witness," the detective replied. "Is there an interrogation room open right now?"

"I think Ramirez was just finishing up in room two," the booking officer replied. "I can keep an eye on him while you check."

The detective nodded and he sat his witness down near Betty and Chuck and handcuffed him to the bench so he wouldn't run away and then went off to see in the interrogation room was available. Betty and Chuck both noticed that the man seemed to be muttering something and they leaned closer so that they could listen.

"…took his teeth, she killed him and took his gold teeth, she took his teeth, she killed him and took his gold teeth…" the man kept muttering over and over again.

Betty and Chuck looked at each other. Zordon had told them that Rita would be gathering gold to try and reform Goldar. There was a possibility that whatever this man had seen wasn't related to Rita, gold teeth were pretty valuable; but it was a very strange coincidence if that was the case.

Just then the officer that had arrested them came back.

"Alright you two you get your phone calls, come with me," he said.

He led Betty and Chuck to a pair of payphones in a narrow dead-end corridor of the station. He handed them each a quarter and then walked off.

"You've got five minutes," he said as he left.

Betty picked up the receiver and was about to call her home but then stopped. She then dialled the number for her father's cellphone. He picked up on the third ring.

"Hello, who is this?" Hal Cooper answered the phone.

"Dad it's Betty," Betty replied.

"Betty, where are you calling from?" Hal asked.

"I'm… I'm at the police station," Betty responded. "Please don't be mad… it, it's all part of a misunderstanding."

"Betty what happened?" Hal inquired.

"I… I skipped school," Betty admitted. "Me and Chuck Clayton, we sort of borrowed his father's truck without asking and went over to the Blossom's to hang out with them and a new girl. Chuck's dad reported the truck as stolen and the police showed up looking for it and they just arrested Chuck and when I tried to stick up for him they arrested me."

Betty could hear her father sigh on the other end of the line, "Okay, I'll tell your mother we'll…"

"No, can you come alone," Betty said. "I don't want Mom down here; she's just going to make a scene."

"Okay," Hal agreed. "You're probably right, but you know she's not going to be happy."

"Well I'm used to that," Betty mumbled.

"Alright I'll be there shortly sweetie," Hal promised her.

Betty glanced over at Chuck who was just hanging up the phone himself. Chuck had a rather nervous look on his face.

"My dad is pissed," Chuck said glumly. "Although he was glad that it was me that took his truck. He thought it might have been another student or perhaps someone from Southside; remember when they stole Principal Weatherbee's car last year and left it in Pickens Park on blocks?"

Betty nodded remembering the event. At that moment the officer came back and took them back to the booking area again, and then left them handcuffed to the bench.

"You know I bet we could break these," Chuck said as he tugged on his handcuffs.

Testing, Betty tugged with her handcuffed hand and was surprised when the links of the cuff simply snapped.

"Oops," Betty said looking at the two broken halves.

Just then the booking officer came over to see what was going on.

"What the heck?" he muttered looking at the handcuffs confused.

Betty just shrugged and tried to look innocent and ignorant.

"Just stay there on the bench," the officer said as he went back behind the desk.

Betty had no intentions of going anywhere else and she just sat there. A few minutes later Chuck's father arrived, his face contorted in rage.

"Charles Taylor Clayton," he fumed. "Just what the hell were you thinking taking my car!?"

"I… uh…" Chuck stammered.

"You know what, you're going to be in Saturday attention till the day after you graduate," Coach Clayton shouted. "And not only that you're grounded until you go away to college; and if you don't go to college then you'll be grounded for life!"

"That's ridiculous," Betty said.

Coach Clayton turned to her.

"And just what do you think gives you the right to tell me how to raise my kid?" he asked Betty.

It was at that moment that Betty's father also arrived, much to Betty's relief.

"Hey, hey Floyd calm down," Hal Cooper said grabbing Coach Clayton's shoulder.

Floyd Clayton turned around and looked as if he was about to hit someone only to stop and a look of surprise cross his face.

"Hal, oh… oh I'm sorry," Floyd apologized.

"It's alright," Hal said then looked at his daughter. "So how about you explain what exactly happened?"

"Chuck and I, we um, borrowed his dad's truck to skip school and hang out at the Blossom's," Betty replied.

"What? Were you drinking or doing drugs?" Floyd asked his son angrily.

"No, no we weren't doing anything like that there," Chuck replied. "We ordered a pizza, drank some soda and just… talked."

"Talked?" Floyd asked.

"We all are in Saturday detention," Betty explained. "We just kind of developed a connection I guess you could call it."

"So you had to skip school?" Hal asked.

"Are you two sleeping together?" Floyd demanded.

"What? No!" Chuck and Betty both replied frightenedly.

"Then what is going on exactly?" Hal asked.

"Look… I don't have a lot of friends, Dad. Actually until a few days ago I would say I had none; just a lot of acquaintances," Betty replied. "I just wanted to be with my new friends."

Hal looked at his daughter, his face a little sad. He then smiled and nodded.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay?" Floyd asked him.

"Floyd, Alice has more or less forced Betty to cut out socializing from her life," Hal said. "I knew it was bad idea; that what led to Betty snapping at school. Chuck here was basically just helping my daughter out, just being her friend."

"They took my truck," Floyd said.

"Yeah, probably not a good idea," Hal agreed. "But it's in one piece, the only thing missing is whatever fuel they used I'm guessing. Really it could have been a lot worse."

"That's true," Floyd conceded. "And Betty is a pretty good kid all things considered."

"I like to think I've managed to mitigate the damage Alice has done," Hal said with a chuckle.

"You do know that you just called me damaged and I'm right here," Betty said.

"I'm saying that the best parts of you are from me," Hal explained.

Betty considered and nodded in agreement.

"Okay Floyd and I will get things worked out with the police and then we can all go home," Hal said.

About twenty minutes later the four of them were all walking out of the station together, much happier than when they had gone in. As they reached the parking lot they heard a woman's voice and they all turned to see Alice Cooper striding towards them, a furious look on her face.

"Oh shit," Hal muttered.

"Why is she here?" Betty asked.

"I don't know, I didn't tell her," Hal replied.

Alice came to a stop in front of them, her face red with anger.

"What is going on here!?" she demanded angrily.

"Alice it's fine," Hal said holding up his hands to try and get her to calm down. "I took care…"

"It is not fine Hal!" Alice cut him off. "Our daughter is skipping school to steal cars with a black boy! I hope you're not sleeping with him too Betty!"

Betty's eyes went wide with shock. She had no idea that her mother was so racist. Floyd then step forward and got right into Alice's face.

"What did you just say about my son?" he asked angrily.

"I'm saying your son is a no good thug," Alice responded. "And by the looks of it so are you!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hal said stepping in between them and doing his best to separate them. "Alice you need to back off."

Alice pushed her husband aside, "No, I will not let Betty…"

She was cut off as Betty slapped her mother in the cheek. Alice raised her hand and touched her cheek which had quickly become red, a look of surprise on her face. However the shock look quickly vanished and she went to slap Betty back, but Betty caught her mother's wrist stopping her. Alice then tried with her other hand but Betty caught that arm too.

"You need to apologize Mom," Betty said. "Chuck and I aren't sleeping together, and yeah we skipped school but we didn't steal a car, we borrowed his dad's truck and it was to just hang out as friends. Something I haven't done in years because you think me having friends is a distraction."

"I will not apologize for trying to help you get into the best schools," Alice said.

"Alice, you should just leave," Hal said. "We will discuss this at home, in private."

Alice glared at Hal for a long moment before she turned and stormed away.

"I am so sorry," Betty immediately apologized to Floyd and Chuck. "The things she said…"

"Don't worry about it," Chuck said.

"That bitch is crazy," Floyd said to Hal.

"Yeah I know," Hal said shaking his head. "She wasn't always this bad."

"Well come on Chuck," Floyd said. "Let's get home, your mother isn't very happy either."

Chuck waved good-bye as he and his father walked off. Hal and Betty then made their way to Hal's car. They got in and drove home, however when they reached their house Hal kept on driving.

"Uh… Dad you missed our house," Betty said look back.

"I know," Hal replied.

"Um, where are we going?" Betty asked.

"You'll see," Hal replied.

They drove around the corner and then turned into an alley way. Hal then brought the car to a stop and he got out.

"You coming?" he asked Betty.

Betty got out a little confused as to what they were doing here. Hal then went over to an old run down looking garage just off the alley and he lifted the garage door up. Inside was a 1970's VW Bus.

"What is this?" Betty asked.

"Well this was going to be my graduation present to you," Hal replied. "I've been fixing this thing up for months."

He then tossed a set of keys to Betty which she caught just in time.

"This is for me?" Betty asked in surprise. "But… Chuck and I just got arrested, even if it was a misunderstanding."

"Yeah well, I think this might help avoid some of those future misunderstandings," Hal said.

"Thank you Dad!" Betty exclaimed hugging her father.

"You're welcome," he replied hugging her back. "But you're going to have to keep the van here."

"Why?" Betty asked.

"Because I'm pretty sure your mother wouldn't want you to have this van," Hal replied.

"Yeah that's true," Betty agreed.

"Let's take it out for a spin," Hal said.

Betty grinned and she and her father got into the van.

* * *

It was late at night but Detective Steven Keller was down at the docks. In just the past week he had three dead bodies turn up down at the docks, their bodies mutilated. It appeared as if the killer was literally taking bites of their flesh. He wasn't sure what he was going to find, or if he would even find anything but he felt he needed to stake the place out.

Keller walked along the docks which were quiet this late at night. The boats that were in port bobbed softly up and down in their moorings. It seemed like there was nothing going on, so Keller decided to go back to his car and catch a nap for an hour or two and then do another sweep.

As he was heading back to his car Keller passed an old unused warehouse that was in disrepair. As he did he heard a noise from inside; he wasn't quite sure what it was but it didn't seem like it was an animal. Keller pulled out his flashlight and flicked it on and then went to the doors and gave them a pull. They opened easily as the building wasn't locked. Cautiously Keller made his way inside.

The warehouse was a mess with broken crates and garbage strewn all over the place and there was rotten smell which Keller assumed came from the fact that it had been used to store fish for years before it had fallen into disrepair. As Keller looked around he didn't see anything, perhaps what he had heard was just an animal. Then his foot bumped into something. Keller looked down and took a jump back.

Lying on the ground in front of him was a dead body. Keller bent down and got a closer look at the corpse. He could tell just from feeling the body that the person had died recently. The body was still fairly warm. Perhaps what he had heard was the killer. Keller reached into his holster and pulled out his sidearm and scanned the area but saw nothing.

He glanced at his gold watch to check the time and saw it was a few minutes after midnight. He then pulled out his phone to call for other officers and a forensics team when he heard something behind him. Keller turned around just in time for a shadowy figure to leap out of the shadows and tackle him to the ground.

Keller tried to fight off his attacker but they were surprisingly strong. The attacker took a look at the watch on his wrist.

"Mmm gold," the attacker said in a voice that sounded like it was a woman's.

Keller felt the attack bite down hard on his arm and he screamed in agony. The attack literally chewed through both the bone and flesh tearing his left arm off just below the elbow and then pulled off the watch.

"Mmm, yes more gold," the attacker said.

The attacker then got up and simply walked off leaving Keller to bleed out and die. As Keller lay there in shock just staring straight up his last thoughts were about his son, Kevin.

* * *

 _We had the first appearance of our villain here at the end. Will Betty and the others be able to stop anyone else from being killed? Please Review!_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

* * *

Chuck was walking to school, his father had refused to give him a ride, when he heard the sound of a vehicle behind him. He glanced back over his shoulder to see one of those hippy vans slowly driving along behind him. Chuck turned back around and continued on as the van went past him. However the van then came to a stop and a moment later the passenger side door opened and Betty popped her head out.

"Want a ride?" Betty asked.

"When did you get this?" Chuck asked as he climbed in the passenger seat.

"My dad gave it to me last night," Betty replied.

"You get yourself arrested and your dad gives you a car?" Chuck asked in disbelief. "What the hell? I get grounded and have to walk to school."

"My father was a lot more understanding I guess," Betty explained. "I mean my mom doesn't know I have it and I have to park it in this alley two blocks from my house."

"Ah, so there is a catch," Chuck said. "Now I feel a little better."

They made their way to school. As they arrived they saw that a lot of students were gathered outside the front of the school. Betty went and parked her van and as she and Chuck got out they were met by Jason and Cheryl.

"Nice ride," Jason commented.

"Thanks, so what's going on?" Betty asked.

"Kevin Keller's dad was killed last night," Cheryl replied.

"Oh shit, and he's a detective," Chuck commented. "What happened?"

"No idea, but he was found with another dead body down near the docks," Jason replied.

"The docks?" Betty asked surprised.

"Yeah why?" Cheryl answered.

"When we were at the police station yesterday we saw the cops bring in this guy from down at the docks who just kept repeating something to himself about a woman that took a man's gold teeth," Chuck replied.

"Oh fuck," Jason said. "You don't think…?"

"That it was Rita who killed Kevin's father?" Betty finished for him. "Three people dead in less than twenty-four hours; I mean we don't know if any gold was taken from Kevin's dad, but I've got a feeling that there was."

"We should go check it out," Cheryl suggested.

"No, no I can't be caught skipping school again," Chuck said.

"Well then you can stay here, we'll check it out without you," Jason said. "You in Betty?"

Betty considered for a moment, if she skipped class again she would definitely be in trouble. But conversely if it was Rita killing people than any trouble Betty got into wouldn't matter, at least not for too long.

"Well, we go down there and check it out and then what?" Betty asked. "I doubt Rita will be hanging around. She probably has moved on, there's nothing we can do at this point."

"Do you think maybe we should go see Zordon?" Chuck suggested.

"We can do that after school," Betty replied.

"Well then what exactly are we supposed to do?" Cheryl asked.

"We go to class," Betty answered as if that should have been obvious. "One of us can maybe talk to Kevin, see what he knows."

"I can do that," Jason volunteered. "He sits near me in chemistry, when I go to class."

"Just try and be tactful," Betty said.

"What are you saying I have no tact?" Jason asked with mock hurt.

"Sometimes you don't," Cheryl said.

"Fair enough," Jason admitted. "How can I argue with my twin sister who knows me best?"

* * *

Veronica was making her way to school. After skipping the day before she'd gotten an earful from both her mother and the US Marshalls assigned to keep an eye on them. Veronica wanted to tell them what she had been up to but unfortunately Zordon had said that one of the rules of being a Ranger was that she could not.

Veronica was hurrying along, she was a running a bit late because she'd ended up sleeping in. However as she jogged along she wasn't feeling at all fatigued; in fact she felt as if she could run a marathon with ease.

She reached an intersection and stopped to check for traffic. As she did a black cargo van came to a screeching stop next to her having almost pulled out into the intersection and run the stop sign. Veronica rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief at the carelessness of the driving.

She was about to continue on when the passenger door and the sliding door both opened and two men jumped out. Veronica didn't know who they were but she could tell almost immediately by their dress and haircuts that they were Mafia. Veronica was so caught off guard that she barely reacted as one of them put a black sack over her head and the other grabbed her and pulled her into the van.

Veronica squirmed as she felt the van peel away from the intersection.

"Hurry up Gino," Veronica heard one of the men say. "This bitch is a fighter."

"Why can't we just off her in the van?" Veronica heard the driver, Gino, ask. "Just put two in the head?"

"The boss said we have to make it look like an accident," the third man said. "Two bullets to the head ain't accident dummy, now drive."

Veronica realized that they intended to kill her. She could feel that her arms being held but both her legs were free. Veronica wasn't sure where she was but she just kicked out as hard as she could and felt her foot connect with the chest of one of the men in the back with her and she heard him thump against the side of the van and groan.

"Tony, you alright?" the man holding her asked.

Veronica could tell that he was holding her from behind and she snapped her head back smashing the back of her head into his face.

"Fuck my nose!" the man cried out in pain as he grabbed his face.

With nobody holding her anymore Veronica pulled the sack off of her head. She saw Tony trying to get up and she kicked him in the face. His head bounced off the van and he slumped to the floor unconscious.

She then turned around and saw the third man reaching into his waist to pull out a pistol. Reacting quickly Veronica lunged and grabbed his wrist and twisted forcing him to drop the gun. He tried to pull his arm away from her but Veronica was stronger than him.

"What the…?" he started to ask surprised that a teenage girl was over powering him with seeming ease.

He never finished as Veronica drove her fist into his left temple causing him to crumple to the floor of the van in a heap. Veronica then grabbed the pistol and pointed at the back of the driver, Gino's, head.

"Pull over now," Veronica ordered.

Gino slowed down and pulled over. Veronica then pistol whipped him in the back of the head causing him to slump forward onto the steering wheel causing the horn to go off. Veronica pulled him back and searched him and found a cell phone. She pulled it out and called 911.

"Hello, I'd like to report a crime," Veronica said. "Yes three men just tried to abduct a girl. Their van is at the intersection of… Angel Grove and Fifth."

Veronica then tossed the phone onto the floor of the van and got out.

"Thanks a lot guys; now I'm really going to be late," Veronica complained as she continued on to school.

* * *

Jason arrived at chemistry class.

"Mister Blossom, how nice of you to come to class," said the teacher Professor Flutesnoot.

Jason ignored the comment and made his way to his seat at the back of the classroom. In the seat in front of his was Kevin Keller who was sitting at his lab table with his head down in his hands. Jason stopped beside Kevin.

"Hey, are you doing alright?" Jason asked.

"No," Kevin replied.

"You know I'm pretty sure they'd let you go home," Jason said. "I mean why are you even here?"

"I just… I'm trying to do anything to get my mind off of what happened," Kevin answered.

"Okay well I understand that," Jason said. "Do you mind if I ask what happened?"

"I have no idea," Kevin replied. "I haven't been told anything yet. The only thing I know is that my dad was staking out the docks last night for some killer he's been calling the Gold Killer."

"The Gold Killer?" Jason asked.

"Yeah the killer steals gold off of his victims," Kevin replied.

Jason wanted to say that the killer could also be a woman but decided it wasn't relevant.

"Did your dad have anything gold on him?" Jason asked.

Kevin thought for a moment and then his eyes went wide.

"Yeah he has a gold watch," Kevin replied. "You don't think that the Gold Killer got him?"

"I don't know," Jason replied. "I'll leave that up to the police. But if it's missing, I would say that your dad probably ended up finding the killer."

"Jason take your seat!" Professor Flutesnoot called from the front of the class.

Jason rolled his eyes and took his seat; as he did Kevin put his hand up.

"Professor Flutesnoot, can I please be excused?" Kevin asked.

"Very well," Flutesnoot agreed with a sigh.

Jason watched as Kevin gathered his things and left the classroom. Jason felt bad for him, but he was also now quite certain that Rita was the one who had killed Kevin's father and he now felt that it was up to him and the others to bring her to justice for what she'd done.

* * *

"… and he told me that his father always wears a gold watch," Jason said to the others.

It was lunch time and the four of them were seated by themselves at one of the round tables.

"That's just too much of a coincidence," Betty said. "It had to be Rita. I mean it would be pretty hard to get the drop on a detective who was looking for a killer."

Just then Veronica showed up.

"Hey did I miss anything?" Veronica asked as she sat down.

"We're pretty sure that Rita's been killing people to gather gold," Cheryl replied. "Kevin Keller's father, he's a detective, was looking for a killer and ended up killed himself."

"Oh shit," Veronica said. "And here I thought I had an interesting story."

"Why what's up?" Chuck asked.

"Well on my way to school this morning I got jumped by these Mafia guys who were sent to kill me," Veronica replied.

"What? No way!" Cheryl exclaimed.

"Oh totally," Veronica replied. "But I was able to fight them off and get away thanks to the whole Ranger thing. I broke one guys nose and knocked them all out, it was an adrenaline rush."

"Oh that's pretty cool," Jason said. "Man I kind of want to get in a fight now; see what I can do."

"Yeah but we're not supposed to go around looking for a fight," Betty reminded him. "And we need to focus on Rita."

"Well we need to be able morph or whatever if we want to be able to take her on," Chuck said.

"After school we'll go back up to the quarry again," Betty said. "Rita's obviously here so we don't have much time."

The others all nodded in agreement.

* * *

The Rangers were back at the ship as Alpha led them into Zordon's chamber.

"Welcome back Rangers," Zordon greeted them.

"Zordon, Rita's going around town killing people to gather gold," Betty said. "We need to stop her."

"I know," Zordon said. "However the five of you are not ready to battle Rita yet."

"Come on there's five of us and one of her," Chuck said.

"Rita was once a Ranger like you, and she also has other powers which you do not," Zordon reminded them. "And she was able to defeat my team and we had far more experience than you five do, not to mention you cannot morph yet.

The Rangers were all silent.

"Go with Alpha," Zordon said. "You must train."

The five teens followed Alpha out of Zordon's chamber and to the training chamber. Today there were five different coloured stands each of which held a different weapon.

"Today Rangers we will begin weapons training," Alpha said. "On the stands in front of you are your individual weapons, each of which goes with your corresponding Power Coin."

Betty stepped towards the red stand which held a large sword with a thick knife like blade and bulky sabre grip. She picked it up and swung it experimentally a few times the weapon feeling much lighter than it looked in her hand.

"Cool," Betty said.

Cheryl went to the pink stand which held a recurve bow that had had blade on the outsides of the curve.

"I can see it can be used to fight, but uh, where are the arrows?" Cheryl asked.

"Just pull back on the string," Alpha replied.

Cheryl did so and suddenly an arrow appeared knocked on the string. Cheryl experimentally pointed it at the wall and fired, the arrow penetrated all the way to the feathers.

"Whoa, that is awesome," Cheryl exclaimed.

Jason went to the black stand and picked up a large two handed double-bladed axe. He gave a few experimental chops, the big weapon humming as he waved it about.

"Man this will do some damage," Jason stated.

Chuck went to the blue stand where there was staff-like weapon with blades on either end. He took it and twirled it around trying to be like the martial artists he'd seen in movies. However as he tried to spin it around behind his back he dropped it to the ground.

"Think I'm going to need some practice," Chuck said as he picked it back up.

Veronica approached the yellow stand last. On the stand was a pair of weapons that greatly resembled sais. Veronica picked them and did a few practice thrust.

"You know this is kind of like Raphael from the Ninja Turtles, he was always my favourite," Veronica commented.

"Didn't know you watched Ninja Turtles," Chuck said.

"From time to time," Veronica said.

"You can discuss TV shows later Rangers," Alpha interrupted. "For now you need to practice and master your new weapons."

* * *

Abbey Finn was the owner of Riverdale Jewellery, the only fine jewellery store in the town. It was about 7:15 p.m. and it had been a slow business day so Abbey decided she would close up early. With all the talk of some killer going around killing people to steal their gold people were probably not wanting to purchase any jewellery right now. Abbey hoped that the killer would be caught and brought to justice or her business might end up suffering greatly.

Abbey was just about to head into the back to begin closing up when the door opened. Abbey looked to see a somewhat dishevelled looking woman enter the store holding what looked to be a golden staff or sceptre which had a large green gem mounted on it in one hand.

"Um can I help you?" Abbey asked warily, there was something off about this customer.

"I want gold," the woman replied. "All of it."

"Um, excuse me?" Abbey responded; the request didn't make sense.

"I want all of the gold," the woman repeated.

Abbey didn't know off the top of her head how much all of the gold in her store cost, but she knew it was several millions of dollars' worth of jewellery; and this woman didn't appear to have that much money if she even had any at all.

"Okay and how exactly do you plan on paying for it?" Abbey asked suspiciously.

"Paying?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, if you want all my gold it's going to cost you a lot of money," Abbey replied as she stepped from behind the counter and slowly approached the woman.

"Money?" the woman inquired.

Abbey was beginning to think that this was some kind of prank.

"Look unless you have money to buy something I'm going to have to ask you to leave," Abbey stated.

Suddenly the woman reached out with her freehand quicker than Abbey could react and grabbed Abbey by the throat and lifted her into the air, Abbey's feet dangling off the ground.

"I do not buy, I take," the woman stated and smiled showing several gold teeth.

Abbey suddenly realized that this woman was the so-called Gold Killer the police were looking for. Before she could scream or do anything however the woman snapped Abbey's neck and dropped her corpse to the ground.

The woman then walked over to one of the cases which contained dozens of engagement rings and smashed the glass with her bare fist. She then placed her sceptre in the case and all of the gold liquefied and then pooled together leaving behind the various gem stones. The puddle of gold then travelled to the woman's sceptre and added itself as the sceptre grew to become more of a staff.

The woman then went about and did the same with all of the gold in the store. Once she had she looked at her staff and smiled.

"Soon Goldar, soon," Rita said.

* * *

 _Finally we see Rita. Meanwhile the Rangers are training with their weapons, but will they be ready and able to stop Rita? And we got a nice little ass-kicking scene in there from Veronica. There will be more of that coming up in the next chapters as the Rangers face Rita and her Putties for the first time._

 _Also thanks to everybody who has reviewed so far. I noticed there was some talk in the reviews about a White Ranger and Green Ranger. I would just like to state that Rita is the Green Ranger (that gem in her staff is the green Power Coin) and there will be no White Ranger. I don't intend to write anything beyond their battle with Rita. That said I appreciate your comments and suggestions none the less and please keep those reviews coming._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

* * *

It was about 10:30 pm as Betty climbed up the ivy on the side of her house and onto the roof of her porch so she could sneak through the window of her bedroom. As she was closing the window her door opened. Betty spun around worriedly and saw her father.

"Where were you?" Hal asked.

"I was… with friends," Betty replied.

"Chuck again?" Hal inquired.

"And others," Betty answered.

"But you're all home safe?" Hal questioned her.

Betty was wondering what was up with all the questions from her father.

"Yeah, why?" Betty replied curiously.

"There was a murder," Hal responded. "It's all over the local news."

"A murder? Who was killed?" Betty asked worriedly.

"Abby Flynn, the jewellery store owner," Hal answered. "It happened apparently just as she was closing up for the night."

Betty's eyes went wide. The jewellery store would have had a lot of gold. There was no doubt in Betty's mind that this was Rita.

"Well I wasn't anywhere near the jewellery store tonight," Betty told him.

"I'm just glad you're safe, and that your mother didn't catch you sneaking in," Hal said.

"Yeah, I think the only thing worse would be if an eons old space which was planning to destroy the world," Betty stated with a chuckle.

"That is… oddly specific," Hal commented.

"Sorry, it was from this, uh movie we were watching," Betty lied.

"Okay," Hal said no entirely convinced. "Well until this murderer is found I want you to be home by nine, understood?"

"Yeah, okay," Betty agreed.

"Alright, goodnight then," Hal said.

"Goodnight dad," Betty said.

Hal left, closing the door behind him. The moment he was gone Betty grabbed her phone and called Jason. He answered on the second ring.

"Betty, what's up?" Jason asked.

"Is Cheryl with you?" Betty asked.

"Yeah, she's just in the next room," Jason replied. "Why?"

"Rita's struck again," Betty replied. "She hit the jewellery store."

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"Shit," Jason said breaking the silence.

"We need to stop her," Betty said. "Tonight."

"But we can't morph yet," Jason said.

"We're just going to have to take our chances," Betty replied.

"Okay but we don't even know where she is," Jason stated. "If she's this Gold Killer the police haven't managed to find her yet.

That was certainly true. Riverdale may have had a small population of just a few thousand but it was spread out over a large area.

"Well we know she's going to be looking for gold," Betty said. "So maybe a pawn shop or…"

"McDonald's," Jason blurted out.

"What? What does food have to do with this?" Betty asked.

"The Golden Arches, the nickname for McDonald's," Jason clarified. "I'm guessing that unlike Alpha, Rita hasn't really had much time to catch up on everything that's gone on in the past who knows how long. So I'm willing to be she might not know that the Golden Arches aren't really gold."

"That is clever," Betty said. "But nobody really call them the Golden Arches anymore."

"I can handle that," Cheryl said suddenly coming on the phone.

"Cheryl?" Betty asked in surprise.

"I know a guy that works the night shift at the radio station," Cheryl explained. "I can get him to drop some golden arches references. If she's near a radio she'll probably hear it."

"That's as good a plan as any," Betty said. "I'll call Chuck and you call Veronica and we'll meet up at McDonald's."

"See you there," Jason said.

* * *

Rita walked along the empty streets of Riverdale until she came to a store. She looked up at the sign which read, Pawn Shop: We Buy And Sell Electronics, Gold, Everything!

"Mmm, yes gold," Rita hissed with excitement.

She walked over to the door but found that it was locked. She pointed her staff at the door and it suddenly exploded inward. Rita then stepped inside and looked around. All around were old CRT TV's and radios, electric guitars and harmonicas, rings and necklaces.

Rita went to the jewellery first. Very little of it was actually real gold, but what was there she absorbed into her staff. Rita wondered why there wasn't more gold in this establishment which claimed to have it. She looked over at the various electronics.

"Perhaps one of these primitive machines will tell me where to find more gold," Rita said aloud.

She pointed her staff at a radio.

"Tell me where to find gold!" Rita demanded.

The radio crackled to life playing some kind of music.

"I want gold not music!" Rita yelled at the radio

"That was Sugar by The Archies," the voice of the DJ said. "And if you're craving some sugar head on down to the Golden Arches, McDonald's to get a McFlurry."

"Golden Arches… McDonald's…" Rita repeated slowly. "I must find this McDonald's and use these Golden Arches to make my Goldar!"

Rita turned and headed for the exit only to see a police car pull up and skid to a stop having been alerted by the store's alarm when Rita had broken in. Two police officers got out of the car quickly and immediately pointed their weapons at Rita.

"Hands up!" one of them ordered.

Rita ignored them and calmly exited the store.

"I said hands up lady!" the officer repeated. "You're under arrest for breaking and entering."

"You will tell me where I can find the Golden Arches," Rita said as she pointed her staff at the officer and continued to ignore his commands.

"Is she serious?" the second officer asked his partner.

"The Golden Arches, where are they?" Rita demanded impatiently.

"Lady, you need to put down that staff now and put your hands in the air," the first officer commanded.

Rita growled and in the blink of an eye managed to close the fifteen feet between her and officer grabbing him by the throat with one hand.

"Where are these Golden Arches?" Rita demanded angrily.

Just then the sound of three gun shots rang out. Rita turned her face not so much angry but instead rather annoyed and looked at the second officer who was pointing his gun at her and shaking with fear at the fact that Rita was still standing despite having just been shot three times.

Rita banged the end of her staff on the ground twice and the ground near the second officer began to rumble. As the second officer looked down he watched the road around him literally rip itself apart. The chunks of road then began to clump together and form two huge 8 foot tall humanoid shaped figures.

"Kill him my putties," Rita said.

The two putties grabbed the second officer and began to literally rip him apart, dismembering him limb by limb painfully. Soon there was nothing left but a limbless torso.

"Now, tell me where I can find the Golden Arches," Rita asked for the third time.

"Uh, it's that way, that way," the terrified first officer replied pointing desperately.

Rita smiled and then with just the flick of a wrist threw the officer clear across the road and through the window of a barber shop, where he laid motionless. Rita then turned and headed in the direction that the officer had indicated the two putties following her.

* * *

"So we're going to sit in a McDonald's parking lot and hope that Rita shows up because she doesn't know anything about human culture?" Veronica asked.

Veronica along with Betty, Jason, Cheryl and Chuck were all at the Riverdale McDonald's in the parking lot sitting around Betty's van and Cheryl's car, which was a '92 Ford Mustang.

"Yeah, that's the plan," Jason replied.

"Okay, second question, am I the only one that thinks this is a stupid plan?" Veronica asked.

"Well I wouldn't call it stupid," Chuck replied. "But the odds of it working are stupid long. And what's probably going to happen is I'm going to get caught in this parking lot and end up grounded till I'm fifty."

"I think you're exaggerating a little bit there Chuck," Betty said. "I mean when you're fifty…"

They were all distracted by a noise from the street. All of them looked to see a woman carrying a large golden staff with a green stone in the head of it walking towards the restaurant.

"Ah, the McDonald's!" the woman declared happily. "Now where are the Golden Arches?"

"I take it all back," Veronica said. "This plan was brilliant."

"It's only brilliant if we're able to stop her," Cheryl said.

The five of them made their way towards Rita and stood in her path. Rita paused where she was and looked at them tilting her head and making strange hisses and clicking noises as she did.

"One… two… three… four… five…" Rita counted slowly. "Are you the new Power Rangers?"

The five Rangers just stood there ground saying nothing, all of them too nervous to speak.

"You are mere children," Rita said. "Killing you will be all too easy."

Rita raised her staff and charged at the Rangers. Betty took a deep breath and then ran towards Rita and the other Rangers followed behind her.

Betty and Rita met and Betty kicked at Rita only to have her kick blocked by Rita's staff and Rita to knock Betty away with an elbow to the gut that sent Betty flying into Jason knocking him over. Chuck was next to reach Rita but she smacked him upside the head with her staff sending him rolling for more than twenty feet.

Cheryl and Veronica then tried to double team Rita with Cheryl going high and Veronica going low. However Rita was far more nimble and acrobatic than she appeared and she deftly dodged their attacks before knocking both girls away a jumping double kick.

"Some Rangers," Rita said with a chuckle as the five of them got back to their feet. "You can't even morph."

As the Rangers were getting to their feet they watched as green armour began to form on Rita's body, spreading onto her arms and legs. However there looked to be gaps and cracks that left her skin exposed. It crept up her neck looking to cover her face but then stopped. Rita looked down at herself a little confused and then looked at the green gemstone on her staff.

"Looks like you can't morph either," Chuck said.

Rita growled in annoyance.

"Maybe not, but I don't need to morph to defeat you," Rita stated.

Rita scraped the end of her staff along the ground. The Rangers looked on with amazement and worry as the ground literally pulled itself up and formed into dozens of the Putties that they had been training against.

"Oh shit," Veronica muttered.

"Come on, we're the only ones who can stop this," Betty said trying to push aside her own fear.

Betty charged at the Putties leaping at the nearest and giving it a Superman punch as hard as she could to its center of mass. The Putty burst apart into rubble but there were still so many more.

Emboldened by seeing Betty the other four rangers charged into battle. Veronica ran at a Putty and ducked as it tried to swing an arm at her before connecting with a roundhouse shin kick at the Putty's waist. Her leg broke all the way through and the Putty fell to the ground and crumbled into pieces.

Chuck ran at another and went low and grabbed its leg ripping the leg right off. However the Putty still stood hobbling about on one leg. However Chuck then hit the Putty's head with its own leg and smashed the head off causing the Putty to fall to pieces.

Jason and Cheryl charged a small group of Putties driving them back with kicks and punches; however the twins soon found themselves encircled. The two of them then grabbed hands and Jason spun around on his heels swinging his sister around. Cheryl lashed out kicking at the putties as Jason spun her, the force enough for her to cause six Putties to crumble apart.

Betty was destroying another Putty with a stiff spinning back elbow when she looked around and didn't see Rita.

"Where's Rita?" Betty called out.

Jason spotted Rita heading towards the entrance to McDonald's.

"She's heading inside," Jason said. "There're still some staff members inside, I'll stop her."

Jason ran after Rita while the other four continued to fight the Putties. He quickly closed the gap to Rita jumping nearly fifteen feet to try and attack her from behind. However at the last possible second Rita turned and hit Jason in the chest with an open palm strike knocking him to the ground at her feet.

"You foolish little boy," Rita taunted him. "You cannot stop me. I will reform my Goldar and take this planet's Zeo crystal."

Rita raised her staff over her head and gave a menacing smile. Jason raised his hands desperately to try and defend himself.

Nearby Betty destroyed yet another Putty, this time with a flying knee as she fought her way towards Jason as she saw he was in danger. However she was sure she would be able to make it on time.

"Time to die little Ranger," Rita said.

She swung her staff down aiming towards Jason's head. Just then there was a red flash and then a clang. Rita looked to see a familiar sword had blocked her staff.

"Zordon?" Rita asked.

Rita looked up from the weapon; however it was not Zordon holding the sword but Betty, now morphed in her Red coloured armour. Jason scrambled to safety as Betty swung the sword at Rita and Rita parried with her staff. The two traded blows until Rita was able to kick Betty back.

"You will not stop me from taking the Golden Arches," Rita said.

"You can have them," Betty replied. "Since they're not actually gold, they're plastic."

Betty pointed at the big McDonald's sign. Rita looked up at it and realized she had been tricked.

"No!" Rita shouted angrily.

Rita screamed again and she banged her staff against the ground repeatedly.

The ground began tearing itself apart as more than a hundred new Putties formed.

"This is not over Rangers!" Rita said.

The Rangers were torn between chasing after Rita and stopping the Putties. The Putties were the more immediate danger and they set about doing what they could to destroy them. With Betty now morphed and armed with the Power Sword it proved relatively easy, but by the time they had Rita was long gone.

"Well that could have gone better," Betty said as she de-morphed.

"Yeah but it also could have been worse," Cheryl stated. "You saved Jason."

"Not only that you morphed," Veronica added.

"How'd you do it?" Chuck asked.

Betty thought for a moment.

"I guess… I guess it was out of a desperate desire to save Jason," Betty replied.

"Maybe that's the key," Jason said. "We need to want to save somebody else."

"Yeah…" Veronica agreed. "I mean up until right now I don't think I really truly believed that any of this was real. I mean I knew we had powers and what not, but I didn't think that this was really a life or death situation."

"I don't think any of us did," Cheryl said.

"That must be what was holding us back," Chuck stated. "We didn't really believe. I mean it sounds corny and all but…"

"So what do we do now?" Jason asked.

"We need to track down Rita," Betty replied.

"Yeah but she could be anywhere," Veronica said.

"Well then maybe we should go see Zordon and Alpha," Cheryl suggested. "Maybe they have some way of finding her?"

"Yeah, I kind of had the feeling that those two didn't want us to fight Rita until we could morph," Chuck agreed.

"Yet that was the very thing that triggered it," Betty said with a chuckle.

"Come on let's get out of here before the cops show up," Jason said. "Last thing we need is to get stuck answering questions."

* * *

 _Things are now coming to a head. The rangers can finally morph (or at least Betty can) but will they be able to stop Rita before she reforms Goldar? Find out in the next chapter. Please Review!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

* * *

The Rangers arrived at the ship excited.

"Zordon, Alpha!" Chuck exclaimed as they ran into Zordon's chamber. "We figured it out!"

"Figured what out?" Alpha asked.

"How to morph," Cheryl replied. "We found Rita and Betty was able to morph."

"That's only one of you though," Zordon said.

"I'm sure that we can all do it now," Betty stated confidently.

"Then prove it," Alpha challenged them pointing to the pads.

The five of them each stepped on one of the pads in the chamber.

"It's morphing time!" Jason exclaimed.

The others all looked at him with bewilderment.

"What?" Jason asked.

"That's so lame," Veronica said as she rolled her eyes.

"I dunno, I liked it," Betty said.

"Focus Rangers on your power coins and your connection to the Morphing Grid," Zordon instructed.

T he five them did that, but they also thought about being protectors and on stopping Rita.

Betty was the first to morph, her red armour popping into existence all along her body. Her weapon, the power sword appeared in Betty's left hand, the blade glowing the same blue as the diamond pattern on the chest of her armour. The helmet covered her head, the black visor hiding her eyes and a grey form fitting piece covering her mouth. Betty then grabbed the back of her helmet and removed it holding it under her arm as she watched the others morph.

Jason was next, black form fitting armour covering him, the glowing blue diamond on his chest looking very prominent. His weapon, the Power Axe, appeared in his hand, the big black two handed axe matched his armour perfectly. Jason took off his helmet with one hand while he held the axe with the other and looked down with a satisfied smile, glad that he had morphed.

"Yes, yes they're doing it Zordon!" Alpha exclaimed excitedly.

Cheryl was next. She was surrounded in a pink glow as her pink armour appeared on her body, offset somewhat by the blue glow of the diamond pattern in the center of her chest. Her weapon, the Power Bow, appeared in her hand the bladed bow looking deadlier now, then when she had used it unmorphed. Cheryl removed her helmet, her lustrous red hair cascading out and down her shoulders as Cheryl smirked in satisfaction.

"Morphenomenal," Cheryl said drawing an annoyed look from her twin brother.

Up next was Chuck who was quite eager. He was surrounded in a blue glow as his armour appeared on him. The blue diamond on his chest plate was a couple shades lighter than the rest of his armour but the two complimented each other well. His weapon, the Power Staff, appeared in right hand. Chuck spun it a couple times, the two blades letting out a deadly hum as they cut through the air. Chuck took off his helmet and smiled happily.

Veronica was the last of the Rangers to morph having watched all of the others. A yellow glow surrounded her and then her yellow armour began appearing on her body. The yellow armour and the blue diamond on the chest along with the dark gray accents on the joints made for a unique look. Veronica's weapons, the Power Sais, appeared in her hands. She placed one on her belt as she removed her helmet and removed her helmet, her raven black hair spilling out.

"Rita won't know what hit her," Veronica said as she twirled the one sai in her hand.

"They did it! They morphed!" Alpha exclaimed excitedly.

"Congratulations Rangers," Zordon said. "However I fear Rita is about to unleash Goldar."

"What? How?" Betty asked disbelievingly.

"After you tricked Rita into attacking the McDonald's, very clever I might add, Rita went looking for any establishment with gold in its name," Alpha replied.

"Well she already attacked the jewellery store, what else is there?" Cheryl asked.

"The Gold Mine Museum," Chuck answered with a gasp.

"Yeah but the gold in the displays there is pyrite," Jason said.

"The gold in the displays is in fact fake," Zordon confirmed. "However the ship's sensors have determined that there is in fact more than enough amounts of trace gold in the mine to allow Rita to reform Goldar."

"Wait, you're telling me that Rita can use her powers to extract enough tiny little flecks of gold from the ground to create this Goldar?" Veronica asked.

"Yes," Zordon answered in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You know that would have been helpful information to know about Rita off the bat," Veronica shouted angrily.

"Look there's no point in getting into a shouting match now," Betty said. "We know where Rita's going to go and we're not going to stop her by arguing."

"Good point Betty," Jason agreed. "Let's go guys."

"Wait Rangers, before you go," Zordon called out as they were all turning to leave.

"What?" Cheryl asked.

"Alpha, show them the Zords," Zordon said.

"Of course Zordon," Alpha agreed. "Follow me Rangers."

The five of them followed Alpha to a part of the ship that they had not been to before. It opened up into a huge chamber. Inside were five huge machines, vehicles sort of, however they were shaped like prehistoric animals.

"What are these?" Chuck asked Alpha.

"These Rangers are your Zords," Alpha replied.

"Zords?" Betty asked confused.

"They are battle vehicles," Alpha replied. "The Zords take on the appearance of the most powerful beasts of the planet they land on; when we landed that was the Cenozoic creatures."

"Does Rita have one?" Cheryl asked.

"Not anymore," Alpha replied.

"Well I guess that's good," Jason commented.

"While they are very powerful, using the Zords takes a lot of training," Alpha told them. "Only call for them as a last resort."

"Understood," Betty said. "Come on guys let's go!"

The Rangers all put their helmets on and left the ship.

* * *

Rita came to the sign that read Gold Mine Museum. The Gold Mine Museum had all sort of artifacts from the California Gold Rush in the 1800's. However Rita wasn't interested in them, she cared nothing for humans or their history. Rita cared about only one thing, gold and using it to create her Goldar so that she could big up Earth's Zeo Crystal.

The only thing standing in her way were those pesky humans who had become Power Rangers. However so far all they had done was simply inconvenience and delay her. And only one of them seemed able to morph.

Rita placed her hand on the ground. She could literally feel the gold in the area. It was all in tiny trace amounts but it would be more than enough for her to reform Goldar.

"Stop Rita!" a voice shouted behind her.

Rita turned around to see the Rangers, all five of them morphed. Rita clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"It's over Rita," Betty said.

"You think that the five of you can stop me?" Rita asked with a mocking laugh. "Zordon and his team couldn't stop me and they were fully trained warriors, not children like you."

Rita scraped her staff on the ground and the ground began tearing itself apart and forming dozens upon dozens of Putties. Cheryl raised her bow pointed it at Rita and fired. However with lightning fast reflexes Rita batted the projectile aside.

"Have fun Rangers," Rita said as she ran off leaving hundreds of Putties between her and the Rangers.

"Let's go!" Betty shouted to the others as she charged at the Putties.

With the Power Swords Betty easily cleaved a path through the Putties, destroying three or four at a time with each long arcing swing of the blade. She destroyed another Putty with a side kick as she ran one through the sword.

The other rangers followed after her. Chuck spun and swung his bladed staff destroy Putty after Putty before they could even get within distance of striking him. He the planted one end of his staff in the ground and used with as a pole to swing himself around destroy ten Putties as he spun with vicious kicks.

Veronica moved quickly, stabbing her Power Sais into Putties destroying them with a single blow each as she quickly moved through the huge wave of rock creatures. As she destroyed one Putty she jumped up on to its crumbling shoulders and went about twenty feet up into the air. As she came down she kicked out at one Putty and drove her Sais into two more on either side of it destroying all three simultaneously.

Jason was swing his Power Axe in big two hand strokes, the head of the axe cutting through the rock Putties like they were made of paper. Jason then ran at a group of a dozen Putties. Before he got there he jumped into the air doing a front flip and bring the axe down hard into the ground. The force let out a shockwave that caused all the nearby Putties to crumble into dust.

Cheryl had found her surround by dozens of Putties. Using her bow was fended them using the blade to destroy them one at a time. She was able to get enough space so she could spin in a circle slashing with the blade of her Power Bow to either destroy or drive back the Putties attacking her. Cheryl then jumped high up into the air and fired the bow rapidly destroying several Putties. As she landed ten Putties were all neatly lined up, Cheryl pulled back on the bow and charged a shot and fired, the projectile going through all ten of the Putties causing them to fall to pieces.

The number of Putties was quickly dwindling and soon they were destroyed.

"Come on, we've got to stop Rita!" Betty called out.

They then ran off in the direction that Rita had escaped.

* * *

Rita found herself on a large open field with little vegetation. She dropped to one knee and placed her hand upon the ground. As she closed her eyes she could feel the gold in the ground all around her.

"Yes, soon my Goldar you will be restored," Rita hissed.

Rita focused all her power and the ground beneath her began to rumble. Just then the Ranger came running upon the scene.

"Rita stop!" Betty shouted.

Rita turned around and stood up smirking.

"You're too late Rangers," Rita said. "Now watch my Goldar Grow!"

The Rangers felt the ground beneath them shaking and as they looked down they could see little bits of gold rising up out of the ground and start trickling towards Rita like a small stream. Just behind Rita a pool of gold was forming and as more gold flowed into it the pool began rise up and take shape.

"Oh shit!" Chuck cursed.

The continued to accumulate and the construct grew taller and taller, soon towering like an apartment building as it formed a sort of humanoid creature.

"You cannot stop my Goldar Rangers!" Rita declared with sadistic delight. "And soon your world will end!"

The Rangers looked at each other and then at the huge towering monster made of gold and wondered just how they could stop it. All of a sudden the ground around them began to shake and hundreds if not thousands of Putties began to form.

"Uh oh," Cheryl muttered.

* * *

 _Sorry for taking so long on the update but things were busy. A bit of a shorter but action packed chapter. The big battle against Rita and Goldar will be up next. Will the Rangers be able to stop her? Find out! Please Review!_


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